Shattered Glass
by Dancingheart4ever
Summary: a story based off the fairy tale the snow queen
1. prologue

The glass was forged by lightening. The border was carved by the wind. It was a present for the queen. The king ordered it made in time to give to her as a wedding present. The queen loved her mirror. She looked into it and watched the world. This was before mirrors reflected back faces, back when they were windows across all the nations of the world. Inside, the queen saw many beautiful things and many horrible things.

The queen had a beautiful son and the kingdom rejoiced. He was kind, brave, wise and handsome. A fairy woman warned the queen, such boys are not meant for this world, but the queen did not like the sad idea. The old woman told the queen she world have to let go of the prince or risk ruining the lives of all her loved ones. The queen had the old woman banished from the kingdom.

The prince lived happily to the age of ten, but the queen still feared for his life. She had seen hunting trips go very wrong and so she kept him inside during hunts. She had seen an old man sneeze and die, so she sent her son to bed at the littlest sign of sickness. The prince did not mind at first but as the other boys told him of their adventures he began to long for the outside. He started to sneak out of the castle at night and enter the city. The people of the castle knew nothing of his secret escapes. The prince made many friends over time and eventually fell in love with a girl in town. One night as the prince was sneaking back into the palace a guard saw him on the wall and shot an arrow. It was supposed to be a warning, but the guard had little practice and less aim. The arrow hit the prince and he fell from the wall. The guard ran away, afraid of what the queen would do if she discovered his mistake. The girl from the town heard his scream and came running. She reached the prince just before his parents did. The queen shied from her son when she saw the girl crying and holding his head in her lap. She demanded she step away from her son. The girl started to move but the prince stopped her and pulled her back to his side. The prince knew what the queen had tried to prevent for years was coming to pass. He was dying young. He shared this information with his sobbing friend and shrieking mother. Even the king began to weep at those words. The prince said goodbye to his father, apologized to his mother, and pronounced his love for the girl. Then after struggling to sit up he pulled the girl towards him and held her hand tightly. His last breath was used to whisper in her ear. Then he closed his eyes. He was done living.

In hysterics the queen blamed the girl for the death of her son. The girl was thrown in the dungeon. Still sobbing the girl had to be carried by two guards. The king tried to reason with his wife, but she insisted. At last the king had the girl released without the queen's consent. Watching the girl leave from the tower the queen tossed her beautiful mirror out the window. It hit the girl and shattered, the queen's sadness and jealousy still glinting in its shards. The girl died instantly, not even having the time to think that she was no longer separated from her beloved prince.

When fear finally cooled the queen's rage her heart froze from the sudden coldness. It took a long time for anyone to notice the change. In that time the queen bore another child, this on a princess. The first years of her life were cold and terrifying, rarely leaving her mother's icy presence. The king wondered why his daughter never smiled, never laughed. He went to the old woman the queen had banished and asked for advice.

"Glass tears and icy hearts,

The queen has sent her rage

Into eyes and souls and minds

For princess, peasant, page."

The old woman would offer no more advice and the king went away as lost as before.

A proclamation was sent forth across the kingdom; anyone who could interpret the message of the wise woman or make the princess laugh was promised the kingdom when the king was gone. Lords, peasants and pages tried everything but the ice princess never smiled. Eager men read the words and set teams to discover the meaning but nothing came of the efforts.

Fed up with the jokes and frolics the princess left the castle and ran to the edge of the kingdom. From there she looked over the edge into the snow covered world below. In a desperate last hope the princess threw a copy of the proclamation over the edge and watched it drift into the dreary whiteness below. She had handwritten this copy herself, in a rich golden ink and sturdy parchment. She had asked the village witch to place a protection spell on it, rolled it up (because rolled is so much safer than folded), sealed it with red wax and her own royal seal. She had kissed it once for luck before she dropped it. The princess chanted word of protection as the scroll fell. Then softer and almost with feeling she murmured, "I hope you can solve its riddles."


	2. Chapter One: Grandmother

Kai's grandmother was considered the wisest person in Yoran by everyone in the village. I loved listening to her tell stories. Kai and I sat at her feet and she rocked in her chair by the fire. They were the most wonderful tales and she swore they were all true. My favorite was the tale of the roses. I looked out the window at the empty window box each spring as she told the tale and sure enough each summer the roses bloomed.

_When a rose seed is planted the dirt knows right away what it is. The dirt knows that if it grows it will become a flower tall and strong._

"How does it know?" Kai asked.

"It can feel it."

"But how." Kai was unsatisfied with that answer.

"Are you dirt?" Grandmother asked. Kai shook his head. "Then you can't tell me about dirt." Kai never asked if she was dirt. Despite his pestering Kai loved his grandmother. He never could quite believe the stories, but he wanted to.

_The dirt know that if the seed grows it will be taller and more beautiful than the dirt ever could. So the dirt decides not to let the flower grow. It pulls all the water away from the seed, so the seed sends out roots. It hides the seed from the sunlight, so the seed shoots up a stem. It then pushes the crawleys to the surface so the birds will come. The stem grows thorns to protect itself. Then the dirt can do no more and the bud blooms into a vibrant flower._

Kai would always wait for one of us to break the still silence after a story. As much as he struggled with his grandmother's tales he knew they were magic to me. We sat in silence, Kai fidgeting. Grandmother rocking and me watching the fire dance until it was time to go to my own home. I knew Kai didn't like it but I couldn't bring myself to part with the magic of Grandmother's stories and the dance of the fire. That night Kai gave me a thorough study and decided it was too much.

"It's not spring Grandmother. Why did you tell the rose story?"

"Because it's been too long since I last told it. Nadzia needed to hear it. She's my dreamer. I have to water her imagination." Kai sighed. He didn't like her abstract answers. I smiled. I thought it was beautiful. " I suppose you want a different story."

"Please, Grandmother. Tell…" Kai stopped. His face flushed red and he looked into the flames.

"Tell about Soren and Maia, Grandmother." I asked. Kai smiled at me gratefully.

"What about them?" Grandmother asked, looking as mysterious as a woman her age could.

"Anything." Kai said softly.

"Your favorite story" I prompted.

"Alright. You both know Maia was the most beautiful girl in town." Kai nodded seriously. I smiled. Grandmother loved to brag about her daughter in law's beauty, her sons bravery and her husband's many adventures.

_Every boy in Yoran would of married her. Many offered dowries of pigs and cows. Many brought flower, sent poems, sung songs. Oh, one fool even painted her portrait in an attempt to woo her. But Maia._

Grandmother laughed.

_She would have none of it. Maia sai the next boy to ask for her hand would receive it—in the form of a slap across the face._

Kai listened with somber attention. This was the only glimpse of her mother he ever got.

_Oh, but you father didn't believe her. 'you're going to have to marry somebody' he told her. That puzzled our Maia for a moment. Then she figured it out. 'Whoever is brave enough to ask me anyways will be worthy of me.'_

"Grandmother, didn't she want to fall in love?" I asked. Ever since my thirteenth year began I had been very interested in the idea of love. I didn't see it in my own life. My own father had died in an accident before I had lived three years and Kai's parents were both dead. Grandmother's husband had died before Kai and I were born.

"My rosy-cheeked dreamer," grandmother answered. "Maia did love Soren. She just didn't know it yet."

"How do you not know you love somebody?" Kai asked.

"True love is not like friendship, Kai. It takes a special kind of person to know when friendship is true love." She looked at me while she said, "I'm not sure you will know Kai. Make sure you think about it."

"I will grandmother. Did… Father know?" Kai found it hard to think of Soren and Maia as his mother and father.

"Yes. I think he did."

"Why didn't he tell her?" I asked.

"Because, Nadzia, Maia was like our Kai. She didn't want anybody to know how she felt. Soren knew it would only make her angry."

"Finish the story please," Kai asked softly.

"Where was I?"

"Worthy of her." Kai recited.

"Yes, thank you Kai."

'_But any number of men would let you slap him if that was all it took to get a yes out of you,' Soren protested. Maia laughed. She promised she would ask them and if in a week she still hadn't found one man she would deem the threat a perfect boundary and make it official. Otherwise, Soren was right and he had gloating rights and the responsibility for finding a new method. Maia asked every boy that talked to her that week. Some said no. Some asked if it was a deal breaker. Some apologized and asked if they could make it up to her, unsure how they had offended her. Not one of them said yes. At the end of the week Maia came to our home. She stood on that very doorstep and told me not to go get Soren. 'Just tell him I've changed my mind.' And she walked away. Of course Soren went running out the door as soon as I told him. He had loved Maia for years but knew she didn't want to marry yet. 'I'm going to ask her. I'm not worried about a black eye'_

Kai grabbed my hand. He didn't like the idea of his father getting bruised.

_Now don't you get any ideas. I was not peeping. I merely picked a window sill as a seat while I read my recipes and tried to decide what to make for dinner. They just happened to be in sight. So I happened to see Soren grab her hand, get on one knee and ask. I saw Maia think about it say yes, and pretend to slap him._

I imagined Maia yanking Soren to his feet and saying "Took you long enough. I hope you'll get used to keeping up with me. Yes I'll marry you. You know that." I imagined her tone sharp and quick but her face soft and smiling. I imagined her having Kai's eyes, blue and deep, contrasting his sturdy face. I imagined she did that too. Said one thing and felt another. I imagined Soren being as proud as Grandmother that he'd won her over. I imagined he deserved the slap.

"It's late," Grandmother said, what seemed like moments later. "Watch her, Kai. Make sure she's safe. I bet her mother fell asleep again." When we were little I could just step through the windows. Now we had to walk through the snow to get to each other's houses. Kai would usually stand in the door way and talk to me while I walked the three steps to my door. Sometime we would just stay out there and talk for a while. Mostly in the summer, though. It was a miserable place to stand when it was snowing.

I climbed carefully into the covers and quickly fell asleep to dreams about tiny warriors and dancing flowers.


	3. Chapter two: Silence

Silence lives where it is always winter and everything is still. She wears white gowns and glides across the snow, leaving no footprints. She is hard to see from the glare.

Trust looks down from his cliff and watches, getting sunburns on his eyes but every once and a while glimpsing Silence. Trust teaches the eagles to let go of the rocky slope forever and fly, but Trust clings to the rocks, jumping and leaping, yet never flying because he has no wings of his own.

Courage strolled through Silence's winter, heading toward his mountain top to sleep until the sun rose again. He crossed Silence's pond and carefully walked out of her pathway, seeing her dull whiteness from his own silver eyes. Courage smiled at Silence and for the first time she spoke. Her soft voice of hello knocked Trust from his cliff. He did not fear as he fell and sure enough, she caught him. Courage gallantly helped them to their feet. But silence fell through a crack and dropped into the icy water. Courage promised to get her and came up with the girl in his arms, but Silence's eyes had turned sky blue, her skin had grown brown and her gown had sprouted green.

Trust introduced himself and she replied, "I know who you are. You teach eagles to fly. My name is Hope."

"I like your voice."

Courage walked away to sleep but his fingerprints were still on her arm.

"Why do you not fly?" She asked, her voice louder still.

"I have no wings."

"Don't you?" She touched his shoulders.

"Have you always had wings?" Trust asked her.

"No. These are new." Her wings were the only white things left about her. "Would you like to try them with me?"

Of course Trust did, and Hope has been Trust's wings ever since.

* * *

"Why did you tell us this story, Grandmother?"

"Why? I think Nadzia knows."

They looked at me and I shook my head. "It's a beautiful story, Grandmother but I do not understand."

"Don't you? Who is Hope, Nadzia?"

"Silence."

"Remember Nadzia that hibernation is a pattern and not a beginning."

"I will Grandmother."

"I will also," Kai said.

"Yes Kai, you will remember but it will do you no good. You, Kai, need Nadzia to remember. She is not my rosy eyed dreamer anymore. She is ours."

"Yes, Grandmother." Her words clearly had disappointed him.

"But, is being a dreamer always good?" I asked.

"Goodness, No!" Grandmother laughed so hard her chair rocked. "There are a million times when it is no good to be a dreamer, but no ways to change."

I was not angry with this answer. "Then why do you praise me for it?"I had known for year my dreaming irritated many people. But Kai did not know this.

"Because. Whether you know it or not, you are dreaming for the both of you. And Kai is being serious. It is a balance that is beautiful."

"But we know that." I tried to explain.

She smiled and shook her head.

"We don't know anything," Kai muttered bitterly. His eyes were on fire or reflecting the light of the flames more than usual. I took his hand, as was natural, and realized it had become rare for me to do so. He glanced at me, studied me and then pulled his hand from mine. HE stood up quickly to grab my jacket. Handing it to me, he shivered a little.

"Goodbye Grandmother."

"Good bye, my dear."

"Kai?" I began.

"Walk her to her door. It's windy tonight. We can't let her blow away." Kai sighed, but he put on his own jacket too.

He closed the door behind us, to keep her warm.

"Kai?"

"No." He shook his head. "It's not your fault." For the first time, he took my hand. "Don't think I'm mad at you."

"She thinks she is helping."

"Perhaps someday we will find that we have been helped by her wisdom."

"Even if not, can't you enjoy the stories?"

"I don't know what is wrong with me."

Nothing, was on the tip of my tongue. "Kai." I said.

"No, Nadzia. Please don't say a thing. I'll be fine. I don't know what's wrong with me today. I just… I'm sorry."

"Alright. I won't say anything." I squeezed his hand. Kai helped me to close the door against the wind and I rushed across the cold room to my bed.


End file.
